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Cuba’s Papal Nuncio Denounces “Human Degradation” on the Island

Español“Only freedom can give hope to the people,” said archbishop Bruno Musaró, papal nuncio in Cuba, after a mass celebrated in San Pío de Pietrelcina Park in the Italian town of Vignacastrisi.

“The Cuban people live in conditions of absolute poverty, human degradation, and civil rights violations — victims of a socialist dictatorship that has subjugated them for 56 years. For these people, the only hope for a better life is to escape the island,” declared Monsignor Musaró, according to a report from the local news outlet Lecce News 24.

“The Italians, who complain about so many things, need to know that in Cuba a doctor earns €25 a month,” said the archbishop. “To live a life with dignity some professionals work as waiters. In Cuba everything is controlled by the state, even the milk and meat. Eating beef is a luxury, and if you kill a calf to eat it, you are arrested and brought to jail.”

Musaró previously served as papal nuncio en Panama, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Guatemala. “Even half a century later, they talk of revolution; they praise it. Meanwhile, people do not have jobs, and they don’t know how to feed their own children.”

A doctor attends to Roberto Formigo, a UNPACU activist, after being assaulted by police. (@patriotaliud)

Repression Continues

On Sunday, August 24, a police operation prevented the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) from a holding a celebration of the third anniversary of the foundation. UNPACU is a civil organization that “advocates peaceful resistance, but stands in opposition of any repression of civil liberties on the island of Cuba,” according to their website.

“More than 130 activists were arbitrarily arrested throughout the day — 66 violently [arrested], 33 badly beaten, and a dozen stripped of their clothes and shoes, abandoned at night more than 20 kilometers from their homes,” the organization reported.

“The majority of arrests took place in Santiago de Cuba during the early hours of the morning,” said José Daniel Ferrer García, executive secretary for UNPACU. “Sixteen women and three men were intercepted by agents of the Interior Ministry, who announced no one could enter 5th Street in Reparto Vista Hermosa, Santiago de Cuba, where the main event of the third anniversary of our organization was going to take place. We expected more than 700 people to attend,” Ferrer concluded.